a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Definitely Last Offseason Odds and Ends

“Playing with Jerry Sloan–Jerry’s a strict coach and we had our ups and downs, but I think he made me stronger as a player,” Stevenson said. “I try not to get mad about certain situations now.

“He [Sloan] was tough, but he made me who I am now. If I didn’t go through that kind of system and that caliber of coach, I wouldn’t be in the NBA right now.” (Dallas Morning News)

Two. Steve Luhm mentions in this piece that Horny’s oldest son recently graduated from college and is now working in SLC.

While their parents left SLC after retiring (the Stocktons to Spokane, the Malones to Louisiana, and the Hornaceks to Phoenix), the kids seem to make their way back to Utah. Stockton’s second son, Michael, is a senior and fourth year guard at Westminster College. Karl mentioned during his birthday festivities in July that his second daughter would be (is now) attending University of Utah. So much for no one wanting to live in SLC–although after this summer of free agency, that might be just an urban legend.

Three. When asked how AK’s looked in practice so far, Jerry joked, “I think underneath that hair he looks great.” Jody Genessy went on to remark, “Just don’t expect Sloan to ask Kirilenko for hair-styling tips.”

I found that funny because as recent as five months ago, AK and Jerry were sporting the same hair (pics from May 8th Playoff game):

Four. No comment necessary on this; smiley faces will suffice. :)

Five. I don’t understand why fans get so emotional about power and player/position rankings. They’re just one person’s or a few people’s opinions, nothing more. So why feel slighted if your team or guys are ranked lower than you feel they should be? A high percentage of the people doing the rankings probably watch 10% of a given team’s games over the course of the season, and their opinions may be colored by hype or propaganda (whether that happens unconsciously or because they are employed by ESPN). My point is, there’s no point in getting upset about these things.

Random Bits from Around the League:

Six. Carlos Boozer has filed for divorce again.

Six months ago, Locke did that big interview with Carlos and one of the things they discussed was the Boozers’ reconciliation after the first time he filed for divorce. This is what he said then:

“It was tough, but I never, ever thought I was going to crumble. I have too much heart for that, I have too much will power and I’m too focused for that…so what I did was I came back home to my wife, made things right…[now I’m] enjoying life at home, enjoying life on the court, and moving on. There’s two things you can do: You can crumble, or you can get up and fix stuff. You can either fix it, or let it go and crumble and I was like, ‘I’m going to go fix it’ and that’s what I did. And I’m happier for it, I’m grown up for it, I’m more mature, I’ve been able to find myself and I’ve been able to let things go.”

Seven. Saw the pic on the left on the second day of preseason games and thought to myself, I guess the new coach’s dress code isn’t in effect yet. Today, I’m thinking that David Stern has banned Byron Scott from wearing ties (pic on right). (h/t BDL)

Eight. Yao makes Dwight Howard look so tiny:

Nine. Speaking of Yao, I can’t believe that the American media is still confused about his name. Total fail by Yahoo! Sports right here:

…not to mention the “M. Ming” is a dead link.

Ten. Speaking of total fail, you go Craig Smith!

“[Blake Griffin] has the strength of Karl Malone but can run and jump like LeBron James. He can definitely make LeBron plays, defensively. … He has the best of both worlds. The physical strength, the power and he can run like a deer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was running a 40-yard dash with a car in the way, if he wouldn’t hurt the car versus hurting himself.'” (SLAM)

Dear Craig Smith,
Putting aside your uncomfortable mancrush for the time being, let’s wait until Blake Griffin has, like, one NBA game under his belt before we start comparing him to the Mailman, shall we? Seeing as how Blake Griffin has miraculously managed to–without having played a game yet–already miss 13.7 times more games due to injury than Karl did in 19 years (82/Griffin – 6/Malone).